‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under’ Episode 8 recap: She’s a winner, baby

Well, it’s over! And considering how much of a slog it’s been, RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under ended about as well as it could have. The finale is very much in the mold of modern Drag Race final in-season episodes—a sit-down with Ru and Michelle Visage, a RuMix performance, a Best Drag final runway—and even includes the new one-at-a-time lip sync format introduced in Season 13.

It all comes to a head with the crowning of Down Under’s first Drag Race superstar: Kita Mean! This comes as a huge relief to a fanbase that has seemed very on edge about the possibility of an undeserving winner. Of the final four—which included two contestants with previous histories of racist scandals and one eliminated queen who was brought back for no clear reason—Kita was by and large seen as the only worthy option. 

Of particular concern was the possibility that Scarlet Adams might win, considering her stellar track record in the competition and the kid-gloves treatment of her past performances in blackface. (Not to mention her numerous other appropriative performances that weren’t addressed at all.) Season 10 winner Aquaria was very vocal about her disapproval of a potential Scarlet win, and later celebrated Kita taking the crown.

But too much talk of the circumstances surrounding Kita’s win threatens to overshadow the win itself in a way that would be unfair to her. I definitely had other favourites in this competition—Art Simone pre-season, Anita Wig’lit early season and Elektra Shock later on—but watching her in this finale, I realized just how much she surprised me. In his critiques, Rhys Nicholson points out that Kita has pulled off the impressive task of being both versatile and consistent. She was never the flashiest competitor, save her absolutely dynamite makeover, but she never stopped quietly delivering week after week.

Kita’s win trajectory feels similar to Jaida Essence Hall’s in Season 12; she genuinely did well and wasn’t heavily pushed by production. Wins like this can be the most satisfying because they feel organic. I’ve warmed up to Kita over the course of the season because I was given the space to—and considering Jaida is one of my favourite queens of all time, I couldn’t think of a better comparison to make. So a huge congrats to Down Under’s first-ever winner. Regardless of what was happening around her, she kept her head down, did the work and earned the crown.

Owing to each of the queens getting to lip sync for the crown at the end, each gets a pretty generous edit in this episode. Kita’s is definitely the most glowing, including a very emotional chat with Ru and Michelle about wanting to find love, but Art arguably gets the second-best edit. In her interview, she talks proudly about taking care of others, but Michelle questions whether she’s taking proper care of herself. It leaves Art a bit shook, and I can empathize. As someone who is learning he needs to be more open, I understand what it’s like to be so ready to help others that you don’t know how to help yourself.

Ru and Michelle get even more Good Will Hunting than usual in this episode, really trying to boil each queen’s issues down to some greater psychological problem. Michelle later admits that she’s not a professional, but it comes a bit late into the pseudo-therapy sessions for my taste. Drag Race is getting borderline irresponsible in how it tries so hard to analyze queens and dig up their trauma; it’s not just talking to a picture of your younger self anymore, it’s a nearly constant thing now. To quote bloggers Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez’s very smart words on this subject: “More tips about blending and tucking and reaching inside yourself to find your inner performer, please. Skip the parts about finding love because frankly, it’s none of your business, Ru.”

Anyway, once that segment is over and the queens have written their verses for “I’m a Winner Baby,” they head to choreo with new-to-the-franchise choreographer Lance Savali. He looks young, as Kita notes, but presents them with ambitious steps. Clearly something changes between the rehearsal and the performance, though, as the choreography is a bit simpler during the finale. Not sure what happened there, but I do wish we’d get a more comprehensive idea of what this process looks like. (I miss seeing them actually record their verses!)

The performance itself is solid. It’s no “Lucky,” which was a real return to form for RuMixes, but I’d rate it more highly than either of the Drag Race UK finale RuMixes. Kita’s verse is nice, and she has a solid voice to sell it. Art actually has my favourite verse of the crop, as it’s both well-written and well-performed. Karen From Finance chooses to go all-positive in her verse, and the result is unmemorable and treacly. Scarlet’s verse could not be more standard flavour of RuMix verse (give her the crown, she’s here to slay, etc.), but she does perform it well.

On the runway in their best drag, everyone is very much wearing what I’d expect from them—except for Scarlet, who goes a bit simple for what’s supposed to be her most impressive look. Her Priscilla look a few weeks back was far superior to this fairly standard garment. Karen’s is a great look in terms of her brand and character, but I actually think it skews a little costume-y for the finale. A lot of Kita’s look really works, from the gorgeous hair to a surprise pair of wings, but the fit in the front is a bit distracting.

The person who slays the runway is the same person who slays the performance: it’s Art Simone. Like how Tayce clearly knocked her own RuMix out of the park in the finale of Drag Race UK Season 2, Art’s dominance prompts a divisive debate. How much should the finale performance matter? In the age of the Lip Sync for the Crown, is winning at crunch time the most important thing? Or is performance all season what matters most? Judging by the former, yes, Art is the victor of this finale.

But Art also got eliminated incredibly fairly on Snatch Game, and was brought back for no particularly good reason. She didn’t win a single challenge, and while her drag has been top-tier, she wasn’t able to translate that into real success in the competition. For her to win the season would feel less egregious than Karen or Scarlet winning, but it would still be a disappointment.

Luckily, Kita’s performance, runway and overall work throughout the competition is what draws Ru’s interest, and she takes home the win. After the Kiwi versus Aussie battle that raged all season—and with almost all my favourites being the New Zealand dolls—this is a very satisfying result. Anita and Elektra may not have pulled through, but Kita won the day for the Kiwi collective.

I don’t think there’s a ton of value in me rehashing all the ways in which this season failed. To say Drag Race Down Under is one of the worst seasons ever, if not the worst season ever (I’d still say All Stars 1 is inferior), is not a novel observation. But I do think World of Wonder and the various production teams working on new versions of this show would be wise to look at Down Under as a cautionary tale. New entries in this franchise need to be treated with care, and attention must be paid to how the drag scene of the home country can influence the show.

Drag Race Down Under has felt like a badly produced season of American Drag Race, with only broad, joking references to Aussie and Kiwi culture. The cast had some real gems, but the boot order was incredibly unfortunate. To lose queens with big personalities like Coco Jumbo and Anita Wig’lit so early was a mistake. To invest in Elektra Shock so heavily only for her not to make it to the end was a major missed opportunity narratively. To send out the season’s two queens of colour in the first three weeks, then give the only white queen eliminated a free pass back for no reason, was problematic as hell.

And of course, to cast and heavily push a queen with a history of performing in blackface and culturally insensitive drag, then to effectively excuse that past with a backhanded swipe against “cancel culture”? Drag Race is evolving over time, but this was all a massive step backwards.

I know there will likely be a temptation to do another season of Down Under, but I think this is an experiment best left behind and largely forgotten. There are all kinds of other international series on the way—including the very fun Drag Race España, which is currently airing. Drag Race as a franchise should spend its time where it can count, not struggle to make something work where it has failed.

In other words, let Kita Mean forever be the current champion of Drag Race Down Under. Long may she reign. (And if there ever is an international All Stars version, I will absolutely be yelling for Anita to be cast on it.)

Untucking our final thoughts

✨I mentioned in passing my continued distaste for the speeches to younger selves: while there were some good versions in Season 13, there’s just too much incentive for the queens to prepare them ahead of time, which robs them of any genuine emotion. Additionally, having both those and a “Why should you win?” question is too much speechifying for the finale.

✨Not only do we not get a reunion of all the eliminated queens, as has become standard on Drag Race UK and on All Stars in the U.S., we don’t get a final mini-Untucked at all. What a bummer to not have one final moment with the dolls before the crowning.

✨If we’re gonna keep this one-at-a-time lip sync thing, there has to be a better way to edit them. Right now it feels like we’re only getting each queen’s absolute highlight moments—which is nice! But it makes it effectively impossible for us to judge their performances at home.

✨Instead of a Tic Tac lunch, Ru and Michelle host the girls for Jaffas. Nice to see some local elements being featured in the finale!

✨Olivia Newton-John and her daughter Chloe Lattanzi guest star in a brief workroom video appearance, presaging the eventual finale lip sync to “Physical.” They both look great, but Chloe pulls off the absolutely iconic lie that they’ve been watching the show and are obsessed with the queens. The show pre-tapes, Chloe! You shot this before any footage was even edited!

✨Thank you all for joining us for another season! There has not been one week so far this year that we haven’t recapped some version of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and that will be continuing with All Stars 6 starting on Thursday. Honestly, call me an optimist, but I’m very excited about this season. It looks terrific—and hey, after Down Under, there’s nowhere to go but up.

The first two episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 will stream starting Thursday, June 24, on Paramount+ and on Crave in Canada.